Angels in Science Fiction

While St. Paul & the Broken Bones' fourth album, The Alien Coast, saw the onetime rapturous retro-soul group make strides in their transition toward more retrained, reflective, psychedelic-leaning neo-soul, Angels in Science Fiction, arriving a little over a year later, comes the closest yet to a full transformation. Their most tender, intimate album yet, it doubles as a series of letters written by singer Paul Janeway to his then-unborn daughter at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 12-track album materialized relatively quickly: The band constructed the songs in a matter of a couple months and recorded them at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis (with producer Matt Ross-Spang), with the baby's delivery date in September 2020 lighting a fire. Playing out almost like a concept album, it begins with "Chelsea," a lyrical ballad with chord-progression-marking piano accompaniment that acts as a kind of theatrical exposition. After opening with the line "I hope you get your mother’s eyes," it also introduces recurring otherworldly themes with its references to stars, planets, and angels.